Pages

Monday, November 26, 2007

Ginhawa ug lawom Day... (Deep breath Girl). I heard it most of the time when nurses deliver a baby in Libjo's Albor District Hospital. It's good, husbands are not allowed to stay on the delivery rooms. They just stay and wait outside and have some drinks with barkadas (friends). If not I can imagine wives shouting in pain..”Ikaw gyud ang naka among aning sakita” ( You really is the reason why I get into this pain).

My mom works at this hospital few years back before she retire and pursue with her business. She handles delivery and operating room. Though I can peek and even went inside the delivery operations. No pain relievers like Epidural not even make the delivery quick or Induction with Pitocin. Most of the time delivery is done in natural. We don't have the advance equipment to check status of the baby. I remember I was 9 years old that time, my mom deliver a baby with two heads. One of the head came off but they all wonder why the baby is still stuck. Later on they made a CS (Ceasarian Section) operation just to save the mother. Unfortunately the mother also died.

Some times doctors here are really busy. They are On-Call 24/7. And they have to look for alternative ways and non expensive way of treatment. Much more if the patients can only offer a chicken in exchange for the service. But life is so simple. We don't need health insurance. We pay nothing for Insurance. None as in zero. Only when prescription is needed that's the time you need to pay. But remember the delivery of the baby I told you before? The new Dad came back and have with him Skyflakes (kind of crackers) and 4 liters of Coke for all the hospital employees. Thankful for the service and a kind of celebration for the new baby.

The storm blew through Central Visayas around 4 p.m., packing winds of 65 kilometers per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 80 kph near the center and was expected to cross the inland waters of the Visayas, moving west northwest at 13 kph.

Friday, November 16, 2007

The mutilated body of a seven-year-old child was recovered in a creek in Basilisa, Dinagat Province after being reported kidnapped, ABS- CBN Regional Network Group reported Thursday.

The body of 7-year-old Cedie Estoconing was recovered at a creek in Barangay Diegas in Basilisa town. The body was found without the head, left knee, and his internal organs removed.

Escotoning's mother, Rosemarie, said that the boy has been missing since October 21.

Senior Police Officer 2 Ruben Piodo, Basilisa police deputy chief, said two suspects in the killing, Narciso Barrientos, 54 years old, and Fermin Abear, 23 years old, admitted that they kidnapped the victim.

According to the suspects, they planned to hold the child ransom for P 10,000, but the child died while inside a sack of charcoal. It was then that they allegedly got the internal organs of the child, which was believed to be intended for use of a certain Allan Nadunza as a charm. Read more...

In Libjo just a few years back before electricity and before our first Kerosine refrigerator came, storing and preserving food is done a bit different. Those days ice is so pricy and source is far as 4 to 5 hours away in Surigao city. So we then rely on food's traditional preparation and preservation. You know Binoyad, ginamos, tapa, pinahilisan right? We either dry the food, preserve it in salt, hang it smoked or cook it. Drying squid in the sun is unmistakable. Smell is all over the place we can hardly sleep during the night specially if our house is next to it.

System like this seldom happen in urban areas where everything is being bought from the supermarket frozen, fresh on ice or in cans and bags. In Dinagat Island We live next to the ocean our source of food is just next door. We have nothing for lunch then we go fishing. Manginhas look for dayo-dayo kasag, libu-o, clams, sa-ang, suwaki, tajum, lato and more. We have Malonggay, kalamonggay (whatever it's called) in our backyard. Tanglad, sili as long as we have rice, meal is already complete. We can also raise chickens, pigs and ducks in our yard with no restriction. I call it On-demand. It is right there fresh when you need it. These type of things we are always looking for if we migrate to other places. If we can still do it then we feel we're really home.

I remember one time when we went mountain climbing. Some of our older colleague is bringing live chickens in a bag. I asked them "what for?" "This is food. This is good if we have it fresh, right." they said. So then there's no need for storing or preserving.

Funny but I hear this most of the time. "Tay, mangaon na ta?". "Kadali kay mamingwit sa ko". (english: "Dad, are we going to eat?" "Wait I still gonna go catch some fish")